I could blog about Batson v. Kentucky or pickup basketball, so I chose the latter.
They closed the gym I played at last year on campus. Budget cuts, apparently. I just hope I actually get a diploma before they padlock the entire place or simply implode it.
So now my Friday afternoon fix requires a trip to the Rec Center. Little background on The Wreck, there was a line today of muscled dudes to get into the weight room. I am not joking. A fellow muscled dude with a badge was holding people up until someone came out. It was like the world's worst nightclub.
The basketball courts are pretty good though, and normally you don't have to wait too long. But today cemented my status as an old man who may be losing what little magic he had. I've been using the "up and under" a lot lately and other energy-conserving moves. I'm also staying back on defense a lot and not even running to the offensive end because either a turnover will send me scrambling back anyway or I'm too tired. I think soon the other players are going to start calling me "Pops."
Let me be clear: I don't think basketball has passed me by. I just think the subtly different form of "pickup basketball" has passed me by. Let me note a few examples simply from today.
1) I got my hand caught in a dude's hair! Yes, I went up for a rebound and nearly lost a finger because some guy wanted to both play basketball and look like Peter Tosh. That was a little traumatic for both of us.
2) I believe a bit too much in fairness. This manifests itself in many forms. Little enrages me more (in a very quiet manner) than calls based on the score. Calling your own fouls does not mean you have the right to deal with bumps at the beginning and then call a foul if someone breathes on you at the end. My rule is I don't call fouls by anyone on me. If they foul me hard enough for it to actually affect me, everyone will know it and will stop. As a result, this can hurt my effectiveness.
Secondly, on the matter of fairness, I won't stand for irregularities in "who got next." If two girls and a dude in a World B. Free throwback have been waiting, they get to play. There is no discussion. Today, a girl had been waiting game after game, so I told her she could play with me. When our turn came up, she got to play and run the point guard. Full disclosure, we got slaughtered, but I was happier with that outcome than if we had won and she had not gotten to play. I will not sit idly by while such tyranny is allowed to propagate unchecked!
3) I just want to play the way I play, but too many times guys on my team are telling me what to do. Today, I played my first game and we destroyed this other team. Then, those losing team's point guard joined our team because one of our guys left. In this next game, I was being guarded by a guy who probably could bench press around 400 pounds. As such, he played like a guy who can bench press 400 pounds (LeBron excepted, of course). Namely, he was a bit "mechanistic" and preferred brute force to wisdom or body control. But despite his obvious strength advantage, the fact that I was taller than Mr. Muscles by about three inches caused the new point guard to adamantly implore me to "post him up." My rule is I don't really post anything up (and that includes actual posts). Rather than take the advice, I just got the ball on the wing, drove around Mr. Universe and laid the ball in. This only angered The Hulk, who proceeded to bury me under the hoop repeatedly and call for the ball. I don't know if he ever scored, though.
Here's the point: let's just all play smart and make the intelligent play. Square pegs, round holes, make the extra pass, take what the defense gives us, cliche, well-worn mantra, etc.
4) I don't care as much as these guys anymore. Win or lose, I'm just glad to get to run around and clear my head. Basically, I just don't want to get hurt (and that includes any hair-related injuries), get a sweat going and then go home. That's the beauty of what we call "Law School Basketball." Everyone who plays agrees with those tenets and thus most problems are solved. We are still hoping to have Law School Basketball again this year, so I hope we can find enough people.
I admit that I sound like Walter Sobchak, but I don't think my suggestions are too much to ask. I do love pickup basketball and can think of few things that are more fun or easier to get involved in (you just show up and play, that's why basketball is great), but as I age I might be getting a little crotchety. Oh well, I guess it's my right.
Last things:
Gustav go away!
Cancer go away! (Some kind of harsh language on that link, but I think it's funny)
Today's Arizona Adventure!
9 years ago
7 comments:
You need to move to a small town and play pickup ball. There's always one guy who's in "John Stockton" mode, but everyone else is just happy to engage in some physical activity that doesn't involve irrigation pipe or livestock.
It sounds like we play basketball like Woody Allen "acts."
Nebbish ballers of the world unite. I...I'm...uh....oh..excuse me miss, if I could just...ah....get the...uh...rock for a second...gulp.
I have several comments:
First, stop being so polite. If somebody fouls you just go ahead and call it. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with that. I know you are tall, but some guys are fast, some muscley, etc etc, a foul's a foul.
Second, you can hardly consider yourself old. I sometimes feel that way as well, but then I saw Dara Torres nab a gold at 41years of age, and I knew I had to stop using that excuse. The only other explanation of course is that you're just out of shape, but at least that's reversible.
Finally, good for you for letting the girl play! Maybe she sucked, but you were her only option. It frustrates the hell out of me that there is no womens' pick-up basketball. I think that it doesn't exist partially because at any given time several of the potentially interested women are pregnant. Perhaps there is more to it than that. I don't know, I just know it sucks. Be thankful for what you have...
Thanks for the pep talk, Shaleah. I think my "aging" may, at least in part, be more the result of style of play rather than actual years.
I will always continue to let girls play if they want to, and I hope you can find some women's pickup basketball, so you don't have to play against Keith all of the time. I used to have to do that a lot and often when he was shooting well, it wasn't all that fun.
Your sense of fairness has been legendary since the day you first picked up a ball(long before JrHi). And all of you boys have extended the same courtesiess to all comers, always.
Mom done good!!!
Fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling.
Oh, where to start.
I guess with thanks for your blogging selection (much better than a law case), though you see what it has opened.
The thing I miss most about college is pick-up ball. I would schedule my classes and my work schedule around being at the rec center between 2:30 and 3. The best part of working part-time (20 hours) over the summer was to start at 10 a.m., so as to be able to use the car-pool lane to get to work, and be done by 2 to get to the gym.
And it was so consistent during my four years. No matter what season outdoors (though in Arizona the way you tell one form the others is by HOW hot it is), there were always quality games from 3 to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and 2 to 6 on Saturdays.
There is no doubt I spent more time on those courts than any other single place (except home) during those four years.
But despite how fondly I talk of the rec center, I have to admit -- and anyone who knows me knows the pain such an admission brings -- but the UA rec center is better than that at ASU, in terms of pick-up ball. The handful of times I played there, always with at least one law student, there was always at least three courts going, and the skill level by which they were distinguished was easily discernible.
Moving on, I always found it funny how on those few occasions when you did make a call or when you were asked who the ball was off of, you still got questioned. At some point, common sense has to kick in that the guy making the fewest calls (and not doing so just to show how macho he is, because there's a lot of those) is probably the guy making the more accurate calls.
I wasn't always as polite as you were/are, but lately I have worked myself that way a little more. Not sure if its because of I'm getting older or what.
Don't get me wrong, though, I haven't changed that much. I did get kicked out of a recent city league game. But it was a horrible call...
Besides the city league, which I started last winter and was the only guy on the team with high school experience playing against former Nevada players (OK, just one, and we have improved a LOT), I get once day of pick-up per week.
The only place I've found with quality pick-up (getting into the university rec center here is too expensive if you're not a student) is 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. It is truly amazing how many other people, age 18-50, are available at this time. I heard the game started years ago as a "lunch" games for a bunch of UPS workers, but while there may be one or two such employees who still play the game has clearly evolved.
But, like you, I can get a little annoyed when the game isn't played the right way - make the smart pass, get back on defense, don't try to do things you're not capable of.
But in the end it's still the greatest form of exercise there is.
Thanks for an excellent comment, Chris. And you're not related to me, which bumps your comment up considerably in the eyes of my few other readers.
I'm glad to hear you are finding games in Reno. I usually play at the U of A Rec on Fridays, but I didn't make it there today due to law-related junk. I hope to play next Friday as part of the return of our regular Law School basketball game. We'll see though.
It's also great to hear you and Tammy will be coming to Tucson this fall. Kat and I are excited for your visit.
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